Leaps and Bounds
by Giola
Summary: Rose is starting her 5th year. Some things are the same; Gryffindor's winning streak and Quidditch, the Potter brother's rivalry. Some things, however, have changed completley. She's a Prefect, for one. The need to hex Malfoy into oblivion has lessened...
1. Back To Hoggy Warty Hogwarts

Mum and Dad waved us on to the train as usual. Hugo ignored them as soon as we got onto the platform, ditching us for his other 3rd year friends. We met up with Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny, and I left with Al and James to go find our cousins, and best friends, Dom and Fred. We ended up getting a carriage together, as we usually do. Our younger cousins were in the carriage next door, and by the sounds of it they were tormenting Lorcan and Lysander Scamander, who're starting first year.

In our carriage, Al and I are the only 5th years, as James, Dom and Fred are all in sixth year. We're all great friends though, so it doesn't really matter. Even the fact that Al is in Slytherin hasn't kept the Potter/Weasley clan apart.

James stretches out, placing his feet on the empty seat opposite him, yawning.

"So, Rose, how ya been? We haven't seen you, in, what, a week?" James smiles his crooked grin, now helping himself to some of Dom's Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans.

"Mmm," I replied, picking my own bean carefully. You never know what you're going to get with these beans. I've had a dirt flavoured one once, and I can tell you, it wasn't fun. I think I ended up spitting it in James's face, actually. "Yeah, a whole week, that must be a record for us." I grinned.

We were always over at the Potter's house. Hugo and I had practically been raised in three house; our own, the Potter's and the Burrow. We had big family dinners every Sunday night at the Burrow when we weren't all at Molly loved to cook for us all, something I'd never understand. My speciality was burnt toast.

About an hour in, a second year came with a note for me, from the Head Boy. Curious, I opened it. I'd been told when I got my Prefect letter that there would be a Prefect meeting near the start of term, which was odd since it usually occured on the Hogwarts Express. The note detailed the meeting, which was to take place tomorrow night, and our duties for the day, mainly sheperding the younger students around. We also got the password, which was Gobbledegook this year. Whoever comes up with these passwords must be slightly insane.

We spend most of the train ride after that planning our first Hogsmeade trip and eating our way through the stack of sweets that James had bought. Lily came in at one point, nagging us all to put on our school robes. I swear that girl is more responsible that all the rest of us put together.

We all heave our luggage off the train and onto the platform, and wait for a carriage. Lucy, my cousin, and Louis, another cousin, Dom's little brother, both 2nd years, come up to us whilst we're waiting. They're both incredibly excited to be taking the carriages this year.

"Is it true that Thestrals are invisibile? Barty was telling me that he can see them, but I don't believe him." Lucy exclaims, clearly put out with Barty, whoever that was.

"Of course you can't see them Luce, everyone knows that." Louis rolls his eyes. "I can't wait to get there! I wonder what house Lorcan and Lysander will be sorted into?"

The two then discuss the Sorting, drawing in Dom and Al. James, Fred and I pretend to keep and eye out for an available carriage, but in relality James and Fred are planning a prank. Again. So I, as usual, end up being the one to spot a carriage, and run towards it before someone else can snag it. We all squash in somehow, which makes the ride up to school quite uncomfortable, with seven people in a carriage.

Lily and Hugo catch up to us as we enter the Great Hall after dumping our luggage, their excitement obvious. Though they're both in third year, they still find the Sorting thrilling. Wait till they get to 5th year, when all you're hanging out for is the chocolate pudding.

We all take our seats. Molly, Uncle Percy's oldest and Lucy's sister sits at the Ravenclaw table with Louis. Louis is nice enough, but Molly, in my opinion, is an insufferable know-it-all. Al heads off to Slytherin, with James jeering at him all the way. The rest of us take our seats at Gryffindor. I sit impatiently, my stomach grumbling, through the Sorting. Of course, I cheer when Lorcan and Lysander are sorted, both into Ravenclaw. I don't know them very well, though their parents are friends with my Mum and Dad. They're both a bit wierd, very bookish, so Hugo and I tend to stay away from them when they come over.

And then it's time for the feast. James's face visibly lights up. He digs in, grabbing a massive portion of the casseroule directly in front of him. Dom looks at him with disgust evident on her face. I stifle a laugh at the two of them as I also tuck in. Dom is such a girl, taking after her Mum and her Veela heritage. James is the exact opposite, living to prank people and not caring what other's think. I like to think I'm a mix of the two.

"Hey, Rose," Fred says, turning to me, "You all excited for your O. this year?" He grins, and I grimace at him, wrinkling my nose. Dom laughs at my reaction.

"Oh, Rose, they aren't _that_ bad. Just pay attention and keep good notes, you'll be fine. You inherited your mother's brains, after all." She smiles at me, and I smile back. She's right. I'm usually top of my class with little effort, so I really had nothing to worry about. Yet, I knew I'd be stressing about homework by this time tomorrow. I can't help it, it's just who I am.

"Pff, Rose won't even have to do anything to pass. Hell, I did nothing and I still got into N.E.W.T Defence, Charms, Herbology and Transfiguration classes. 5th year's a breeze." James states matter of factly. Dom glares at him, as do I, but he's back to stuffing his face and doesn't notice.

All too quickly, McGonagall, our Headmistress, stands up to make her start of term speech. I actually see half the student body, including James and Fred, tune out. James pulls the Marauder's map out of his pocket, though what he's looking for on it is beyond me since everyone's in the Great Hall. Fred closes his eyes, looking ready to go to sleep. Really, they should pay more attention. Especially James, he is Qudditch Captain, after all. I listen attentively, living up to the Prefect badge on my chest.

When we're dismissed, I lead the first years up to Gryffindor Tower. The Fat Lady winks at me as I arrive.

"Welcome back, Rose! Congratulations on becoming a Prefect, dear, I knew McGonagall would pick you." She smiles warmly at me.

I smile back. She's always had a soft spot for me, though I have no idea why.

"Gobbledegook." I say, and the portrait swings wide, welcoming me back home.

I wake up early, having forgotten to draw my curtains around my bed. Blinking in the sun, I get dressed and head downstairs. I don't see a single soul on my way down, although it's past seven. Heading down to breakfast, I run into a few first and second years, but most of the older students are still in bed. Clearly, they need their sleep. I wake up slowly over a glass of pumpkin juice, joined shortly by Lily, Hugo and Dom. Dom looks half asleep, her hair all messed up. Though I'll be my best quill that she still looks far better that I do. Stupid part-Veela.

Flitwick comes around and hands out our timetables once a few more people have arrived. James, as usual, arrives just as we're leaving for first period. Flitwick docks him a point for sleeping in. I think that's a personal record for James. Usually it takes him at least 24 hours to lose a point for Gryffindor. Mind you, he'll earn them all back in the first Quidditch game of the season, so no one really minds.

I head off to first period Potions alone. When I get to our classroom in the dungeons, I smile warmly at Al. Seems we're sharing this class with the Slytherins. I head over to talk to him, not noticing who's standing next to him till it's too late. Scorpius Malfoy. Great, just great.

Scorpius is the one person in our year that can beat me on a test. Only occasionally, though. I beat him every time in Transfiguration. We glare at each other. We've been rivals since first year, both in class and in Quidditch. He's Chaser for the Slytherin team, I'm a Chaser for Gryffindor. Al and James are both Seekers, so they share a fair bit of rivalry too. The first game of the season's going to be a great one, Slytherin versus Gryffindor.

"Hey, Rose." Al says, completley ignoring the obvious hatred between me and Malfoy. I don't reply, choosing to glare at Malfoy instead. Al rolls his eyes. Luckily, Professor Slughorn ushers us all inside before we start a duel.

Slughorn's the oldest Professor at school, closely followed by McGonagall and Flitwick. He's over 100 years old, but he's still as enthusiastic about potions as ever. Mum and Dad told me about the 'Slug Club' he used to run in their day, though it doesn't exist anymore. I think McGonagall banned it.

"Good morning 5th years! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and are ready to jump right into Potions! Today we will be mixing a potion that often comes up at Ordinary Wizarding Level; the Draught of Peace, a potion to calm anxiety and soothe agitation." Slughorn goes through the specifics of the potion, and we all jump up to grab ingredients for the potion. It's incredibly difficult, much harder than anything we had to brew for fourth year.

Somehow, I ended up between Al and Malfoy. Well, that's just perfect. Most of the class keep looking around, into their neighbours cauldrons, not sure what to do. Malfoy and I, however, being insanely competitive, are entirely focused on our task. I get to the half way point first, my potion already emitting a silver vapour. I sneer at Scorpius, who narrows his eyes, and goes back to his potion. He's not far behind me, so I also quickly return to the task at hand.

Albus, on the other side of me, isn't having so much luck. His potion is emitting green sparks every so often, and he's glancing at it worriedly, re-reading the text book, trying desperatley to figure out what he did wrong.

The bell rings, signalling the end of the lesson. Slughorn walks among us, writing down a grade whilst we pack our books and ingredients up. Neither Malfoy nor I finished, though we both got close. Slughorn smiles at me when he sees my potion, and I grin smugly at Malfoy. Slughorn seems impressed by his potion too, to my dismay.

"Haha, Weasley, looks like you aren't the top of the class today." Malfoy remarks, smirking at me as we leave the classroom. I glare at him.

"You're potion wasn't any better than mine. You can't possibly know that _you_ got the top grade." I say, trying to keep my worry from showing on my face. What if he did beat me? I don't think I could live that down.

"Of course I got the top grade; I'm a Slytherin, and Slughorn's head of our house." With one final smirk, he heads off with some other Slytherin's to his next class.

I glare after him. The grading system does not work that way, everyone knows that. He's just trying to annoy me. Unfortunatley, he's very good at it.

Thoroughly disgruntled, I sit down next to Molly in second period Charms, the class we share with the Ravenclaws. Thankfully, she doesn't ask what's up with me. She's too engrossed in her textbook. Typical. She studies way more than I do, yet she never seems to do brilliantly. Guess I got the good genes in the family. Molly's a prefect, like me, but, unlike me, she loves lording her power over everyone. She really is exactly like Uncle Percy.

Morning break couldn't come fast enough. I plonk myself on the bench next to Dom, grumbling. She looks at me, eyebrows raised. Dom's one of my closest friends, she can always tell when something's up.

"Malfoy." I say, saying the name like it's a curse. Which to me, it was. I get to be the one sitting next to him in Potions for the rest of the year. Won't that be fun?

"What about him?" Dom asks innocently. I glare at her.

"What do you think? He pissed me off in potions. There is no way his potion was better than mine. Definetley not." I cross my arms, glaring at the first years that walk past, who scurry off looking scared.

Dom sighs, having heard my rants about Scorpius many a time. Every year I end up in at least one class with him, and every year we compete like crazy for top spot. One time we actually had a duel over whose rat looked more like the wine glass we were 'sposed to be transforming it into. Needless to say, we both got dentention for that.

"Rose, can't you just give it a rest with Malfoy for once? You're both just as good as eachother." I glare at her.

"He is _not _as good as me! I am far, far better." I sniff. Dom rolls her eyes at my antics. She refuses to engage with me as I rant and rave about Malfoy for the rest of the break.

My dorm mates, Alison and Tiffany find me before Transfiguration. I only briefly saw them last night, and neither of them made it to breakfast. Ali and Tiff are my closest friends at Hogwarts, along with Dom. Ali's on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, a beater. She's the classic tomboy, making her a fantastic beater, along with my cousin Fred. Between the two of them, the other teams hardly stood a chance. There was one match last year when Stewart Alwart, Hufflepuff chaser, actually flew in the other direction when he saw them approach him, armed with Beater's bats. What can I say; our team is good, though slightly scary.

Tiff, on the other hand, is the exact opposite. Her Mum's a muggle, and a model for some big American magazine that none of us have ever heard off. Tiff herself is absolutley gorgeous, with long blonde hair and sky blue eyes. The only person who matches her for beauty is Dom, and _she's_ part Veela.

"Hey, Rose." Tiff says, grinning at me. "Did I just hear you ranting about Malfoy?"

I rolled my eyes at her. Both she and Ali were used to my constant battle with Malfoy, having been witness to it for 4 years.

"Maybe." I grunted, still put out over the potions debarcle. Ali laughed.

"Well, at least we know _that_ hasn't changed." She slung her arm around my shoulders and we entered our Transfiguration class.

McGonagall proceded to lecture us about the importance of our O., so I took notes while most of the class dozed off. She then set us an absolute mountain of homework, causing the class to leave, groaning, for lunch.

Ali, Tiff and I sit at the Gryffindor table, joined shortly by Dom, Lily, Hugo and Lucy, all from their different classes. James comes late, muttering something about Flitwick and 'detention'. Typical.

"Hey, James." Tiff says, shoving me over to make room for James to sit next to her. Ali and I roll our eyes at eachother. Tiff was always after one boy or another, and apparently her current target was James.

"Oh, does anyone know who the other 5th year prefects are?" I asked, generally curious. "Besides Molly, that is." Molly had spent an entire week bragging about the fact that she'd been made Hufflepuff Prefect.

My cousin's shrugged. Seems I'd have to wait till tonight to find out who I'd be sharing my new found power with.

I paced up and down outside the empty classroom that was the designated meeting point for the Prefect Meeting. Honestly, the meeting was supposed to start in 2 minutes, and I was the only one here. Talk about a lack of responsibility.

"Hey Rose!" It was Molly, looking breathless like she'd run here all the way from the Hufflepuff common room 3 floors below. Which, come to think of it, she probably had.

"I was absolutley sure I was going to be late, where is everybody?" She asked, looking around like they were suddenly going to appear from behind the suit of armor shouting 'Surprise!'

"No idea." I replied, hoping desperatley that someone would show up and save me from an overdose of Molly.

Footsteps approached from around the corner, and who would it be other than Scorpius Malfoy? I guess I spoke too soon; I'd rather spend 4 days straight alone with Molly, locked in the Divination classroom than find out that Malfoy is a _prefect_.

"Hi Weasleys." Malfoy smirks at us. The prefect badge on his chest glints annoyingly at me. I can't believe he made prefect, who in their right mind would pick him? True, there aren't that many Slytherin's worthy of the title, but I would have though Al had a shot. Apparently not, though. I guess Al was a shoo in for Quidditch Captain anyway.

The other prefect's arrive shortly. I know most of them, and wave at Roger, the other Gryffindor Prefect. I had a feeling he'd get it, but I wasn't sure. I guess I'm glad to know I'll be patrolling the corrindors with him. Roger's one of the most popular, and nicest guys in our year. Delia Pucey is the other 5th year Slytherin prefect, and she goes to stand beside Malfoy.

The Head Boy and Head Girl, a Ravenclaw called David and a Hufflepuff, Claire, quickly detail our basic duties, most of which we already know. They then talk about out rounds. Prefects have to make sure all the students aren't out of bed after hours, after 8:00 for first to fourth years, and till 9 for older students.

"This year, we've decided to shake things up a bit. As you all know, most years your round partner is the Prefect whose in the same year and house as you. However, David and I feel that we should increase inter-house relations, so we've decided to mix it up. The round pairs for this semester are..." She reads down the list, pairing the female 5th year Hufflepuff prefect with Roger. I tune out till she mentions my name.

"Rose Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy." I stare at her. I could not have heard right. Did she just say Scorpius Malfoy was my partner? No. Way.

David and Claire dismiss us, and everyone starts to leave expect Scorpius and I, who diverge on Claire.

"We are not pairing up-" I say angrily.

"I am _not _working with her!" Scorpius says, even louder than me.

Claire raises her eyebrows at us.

"I'm sorry, you two, but this was the point of the pairings. You two are a perfect example of house rivalry, and if you can figure out how to work together, you'll be a great example to the other students."

She smiled encouragingly at us. We just glare at her, before resuming our protests. She rolls her eyes, and leaves, followed by David, both of them ignoring every word we say.

Malfoy and I are left alone, glaring at each other.

After a solid minute of glaring, I look down at the schedule for rounds that was passed around. Malfoy and I don't have to patrol till Friday, which is good I guess. Though it _will_ ruin my Friday. Malfoy's analysing his schedule, so I take advantage of his distraction to use _levicorpus_ on him. Grinning, I leave the classroom whilst he curses me, hanging upside down by his ankle. I get half way down the corridor before I wave my wand, saying the counter spell. I hear a satisfying thud as he falls to the ground.

I speed up, wanting to be far out of Malfoy's reach so he can't retaliate. Not that causing a duel between us wouldn't be fun, but I don't particularly feel like suffering through a weeks worth of detentions.

I'm still grinning as I go to bed, picturing his face when he was hoisted up by his ankle. I'm not particularly sure why we have such a strong rivalry. I usually put it down to the Weasley/Malfoy rivalry, but none of my cousins seem to hate him as much as I do. I mean, Al's friends with him, for Merlin's sake. I shake my head. I'm probably the only sane one in my family, I wouldn't be surprised.


	2. The Notebook Treatment

Wednesday and Thursday passed quickly, without incident. My mountain of homework was growing, so I spent both nights cosied up in the library with Dom, whose mountain was even larger than mine.

On Friday, I woke up to the sound of the door slamming. Looking around, I saw my roomates Scarlet and Jade's empty beds. Seems that the sound of them going to breakfast had woken me up. Looking to my left, I saw that Tiff was unaffected. On my right, however, Ali was awake, though not out of bed yet, looking as annoyed as I was. Ali and I slowly got up, as it took us awhile to brave the cold. We both showered, and left the dorm after lobbing some pillows at Tiff to wake her up. We hurried down the stairs into the common room, her grumblings echoing after us.

The Great Hall was full when we arrived, so we took our usual seats among my cousins. James, Dom and Fred were all discussing the Quidditch trials tomorrow with excitement. We only had one spot open, a Chaser. Turns out that James and Fred's dorm mate, and partner in crime Micheal was trying out. I hadn't known he played Quidditch, but James assured me, with his mouth full of toast, that he was brilliant.

TIff arrived, looking extremely grumply, causing James to swallow his toast far too fast so he could say hello. To my amusement, he ended up choking and gulping down a glass of pumpkin juice. Tiff and I spent several minutes laughing at him. He didn't speak to me after that, not that I minded much.

My classes for the day passed quickly. Thankfully I'd gotten all my homework done, so I escaped the detentions that befalled many of my classmates. Unfortunatley, Malfoy also got away unscathed, meaning he was still available for rounds tonight. Shame.

I spent my last few hours of freedom after dinner playing Exploding Snap with Fred. Dom, Ali, Tiff and James were watching, though Tiff and James were too busy flirting to really pay attention. At ten to eight, I left the common room, sporting one singed eyebrow, which I quickly fixed on my way down to the Entrance Hall to meet Malfoy. I didn't need him teasing me about that.

He was already there, leaning against the wall, his blonde hair falling into his eyes. I glared at him out of habit.

"What's that look for?" He asked, glaring right back at me.

I didn't reply, instead stalking off to start our rounds. He sighed, following me down the corridor.

We didn't speak for the entire first two floors. We only caught a few students out after hours, and we had an unspoken system between us. I would tell off the first student, he the second, and so on.

When we got to the third floor, he decided to delight me by speaking.

"So, Rose, you going to hang me in the air by my ankle again?" He asked, grinning widely. He knew I wouldn't, not whilst on rounds. Damn him, knowing my weakness for the rules.

I didn't dignify him with a response, turning my head to glare at him before heading down the Transfiguration corridor. I almost heard him roll his eyes at the back of my head as he hurried after me.

The rest of rounds passed in much the same way, him taunting, me evading. I gritted my teeth as we walked down the final corridor before we would split to go to our seperate dormitories. I blocked out whatever taunts he was throwing at me, not even looking at him before storming off to Gryffindor tower. I was fuming. I wonder if using an Unforgivable Curse on someone that annoying was still a crime? I mean, he definetley deserved it. Well, maybe not an Unforgivable. But some sort of curse, definetley. I spent the rest of my walk to the common room plotting different curses to try out on Malfoy. Next time he crosses me...

I walked through the common room, smiling at Dom as I passed her, though not stopping. I don't think engaging in a brutal game of Exploding Snap with James and Fred would be the best way to release my anger at Malfoy. I headed up the stairs to my empty dormitory, plonking myself down on my bed, looking up at the ceiling. I had kinda been hoping that at least one of my dormmates would be here to vent to, but alas, they weren't. They were probably all drowning under our homework, McGonagall had set a ton of it this morning as punishment to those who hadn't finished last lesson's work.

With no one else to turn to, I pulled my notebook out of my trunk. My notebook was filled with little entries, a combination between a diary and a scrapbook of creative pieces. I'd always been good at coming up with stories, and at some point during 4th year, I'd started to write some of them down. I'd found it was a good way to work through emotional issues without actually venting to someone. This was one occasion that definetley called for 'the notebook treatment'.

I spent a good hour on my bed with the notebook, relinquishing my anger to the characters I wrote. The final product was a short story, entited 'The Dentention Chronicles". I wasn't sure why I called it that, I guess I just assumed I would write another short stories, with the same characters. I felt significantly better, so I left my notebook on top of my trunk, pulling my curtains closed and headed off to sleep.

I jerked awake, thoroughly aware of Tiff and Ali discussing something very loudly at the foot of my bed. I sit up, glaring at them.

"Guys!" I grumble, causing them to stop discussing whatever it is they're discussing, and turn to me. I raise my eyebrown at them.

"What is so important that you had to wake me up at-" I look at my clock on the table next to me and gasp. "6? 6 am? Are you kidding me? What are you even doing up this early?"

They look at eachother guiltily. Uh oh. This will not be good. They simultaneously plonk themselves down on my bed, Tiff casting _Muffliato _around it (that spell is so useful, I'm so glad Dad taught it to be. Thanks to me, almost every Gryffindor knows it and a fair amount of Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws too. And Albus, but he's an honorary Gryffy in my mind.)

Ali hands me something. Looking down, I see it's my notebook. I look up at them, panic clear on my face. Ali quickly interjects before I can start yelling. And believe me, I will yell.

"Rose, we didn't _mean_ to read it...it just fell of your trunk, and was lying open, and Tiff stepped on it on her way to the bathroom..." I glare at Tiff, who looks at me apolegetically.

"For what it's worth, I think all that stuff in there's amazing. We weren't going to read it all...but once we started it was _so_ good..." She trailed off, waiting for me to say something.  
I pondered this for a minute. There wasn't really anything in there that they didn't already know, so I wasn't that mad. Yes, they had violated my personal stuff, but they said they were sorry, plus they liked what they read...which is a good sign. No one else has ever seen my writing, and it felt good to be told that it was alright.

I grin at them.

"It's alright." The smile at me, both leaning in to hug me.

We spend the rest of the morning in the common room, discussing how much of a prat Malfoy is (I'd told them all about rounds last night). I think they were getting sick of my complaints when Scarlet and Jade came down, as they were both quick to jump up and go to breakfast. Hmph. I guess I'd just have to find James later and complain to him, he hated Malfoy and all that he represented. Assuming James was talking to me now, anyway. I can't even remember what I'd said at breakfast yesterday, but Quidditch trials were today, and they would be extremely awkward if James was still ignoring me.

I sat down at the Gryffindor table, helping myself to some toast, looking warily at James, who was chatting away to Fred. They both turned and said hi, James smilking slightly at me. Good, that was resolved then. James and I were always fighting over one thing or another; usually one of us took our teasing too far. It was almost always resolved in a day or two.

We went down to the Quidditch pitch straight after breakfast, though I had to run up to Gryffindor Tower and collect my broom. James ran a quick warm up with those members of the team that were there, before allowing us to hang around and wait for the potential Chasers to arrive.

Ten minutes before try-outs were scheduled to start, the stands starting filling up. The entire Slytherin Quidditch team, led by Al, was sitting there. Clearly they wanted to check out their competition. Representatives from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff's teams were there two, but they didn't go all out like Slytherin. Clearly, the rivalry between the Potter brothers was only going to get worse now that they were both Quidditch Captains.

A fair amount of our house also came down to see the entertainment. There were only about 10 people trying out for the Chaser spot, and they all looked incredibly nervous. I saw Micheal among them, and waved at him. He waved back, looking slightly green.

James got the try-outs under way quickly, trying to ignore the crowd. They jeered everytime one of those trying out missed a goal, cheered everytime they scored. Dom and I, as the Chasers, spent most of our time passing the Quaffle to whoever was trying out. The first three who tried all missed every shot; the fourth was alright, only missing 2 of the 4. The next two only got one shot each, the seventh person fell of his broom, causing the crowd to burst into laughter. I saw Fred almost fall of _his_ broom above me, cackling. Micheal was 8th, and he scored every goal, much to James's delight. I smiled at him as he landed, looking pleased with himself. The next two scored 3 apiece, but weren't anywhere near Micheal's standard. James flew down to the ground, followed by all of us.

"Congratulations, Micheal!" He said, shaking his mate's hand. They grinned at each other. The team surrounded Micheal, congratulating him. Al came over and said his congratulations too, though he earned a glare from James. Malfoy accompanied him, though he didn't say anything. He glared at me the whole time, whilst I ignored him.

"Malfoy's staring at you." Ali whispered in my ear. I looked at her.

"No, he's _glaring_ at me. There's a difference. "I rolled my eyes. Ali chuckled.

"Do you want me to go hit him with my bat?" She asked, holding up the bat in question. I laughed the offer of, though a part of me was sorely tempted to accept.

"Hey, team!" James called out over everyone. "Party to celebrate this season, common room, 1 hour!" He grinned as cheering broke out among the Gryffindors. Ali and I rolled our eyes at eachother. Another party. James, Fred and Micheal, who were all dorm mates, were renowned for throwing parties for any and every occasion.

The party was in full swing when Ali and I arrived. We'd taken our time in the showers after try-outs, neither Ali nor I in any hurry to get to the party. We walked through the common room, immediately engulfed by several Gryffindors, who had clearly had too much firewhisky. Sighing, we fought our way over to the girl's staircase, escaping up it and into the relative safety of our room. Surprisingly, Tiff was inside, sitting on her bed. Ali and I looked at eachother, then at her. Why wasn't Tiff, the party animal of our dorm, downstairs?

"What's wrong?" We said, in unison, doing Tiff on her bed. She smiled slightly at us, clearly trying to look happy and failing miserably.

"Its-its nothing." She said, looking at her hands.

I seriously doubted that. Tiff was an optimist, and the only thing that ever affected her was boys. Ah, that was it.

"Is it James?" I asked, guessing, correctly, that he was the latest target of her affections.

"Yeah..." She said, looking up. "I don't really know _why_ I like him, I mean, I know he's an idiot, but I just do. And then I go downstairs, all ready to say something to him, and he's snogging some _girl _right in front of me..." She looked down at the bed again, her face stormy.

I stand up.

"That's it, I'm going to beat that git into a pulp-" Ali grabs me as I head towards the door in a rage.

"No you don't." She says, laughing at me. Tiff looks on curiously.

"What? He can't just flirt with her one day and snog someone else the next! He's a prick!" I exclaim, my voice getting steadily louder. Ali rolls her eyes at me.

"Rose, that isn't going to fix the problem. James will be James. Besides, Tiff already knew that was likely to happen, didn't you?" Ali says, looking at Tiff, who nods slightly.

"I expected it, I mean, how could I not? I'm just dissappointed that I was right. I really thought he might like me." Tiff smiled slightly.

I sighed. We needed something to change the topic, this was too depressing. Luckily, our roommates Jade and Scarlet enter the room at the moment, having had enough of the party downstairs.

"Ugh, that party is out of control!" Scarlet exclaimed, Jade nodding in agreement.

"Yeah, I did not need to see Paul's chest, thank you very much." Jade adds, her face screwed up with disgust. Ali, Tiff and I laugh at this.

We all end up sitting on the floor, on our pillows, in our pajamas, like a typical sleepover.

"So, Rose," Jade asks, with her 'I'm looking for gossip tone', "any boys tickle your fancy this year?" She grins at me.

Jade wants to be a gossip columnist for Witch Weekly, Merlin knows why. She's always after juicy gossip, and loves taunting people to get it out. I, however, happened to one of the most boring people in our year when it comes to gossip. I mean, I've never even been kissed, how gossip worthy could I be?

"Ah, I dunno Jade, I mean; I'm related to half of them." I smile.

"What, and you're above incest?" Tiff says, to my horror. I stare at her in shock for a moment, before we all burst out laughing, Scarlet literally rolling on the floor, laughing.

"Jade," I reply, once we've quietened down, "you know me. Boring Rose. Nothing new to report, sadly." I grin at her, and she grins back. She knows I'm right.

"Anyone else?" Jade opens up the invitation to the whole room.

We spend the next hour or so gossiping about others in our year. Dom and Roxanne, who's in her 4th year, also join us, so we end up having a full-blown slumber party.

"So, if you had to pick any guy at school, who would you choose to do 'it' with?" Tiff asked, her voice whispering the word 'it'. She was positioned on her bed, lying on her stomach with her feet in the air. I was on my bed with Roxanne, her at the end, me at the head, and a packet of chocolate frogs between us.

Scarlet and Jade broke out into giggles at Tiff's question.

"James!" Scarlet practically screamed her answer, laughing even more.

"Ew, Scar, he's my cousin!" I threw a chocolate frog at her. Dom and Roxanne quickly joined in, and soon a sweets war ensued.

After ten minutes, we all settled back down.

"You never answered my question." Tiff said, grumpily. I rolled my eyes at her, and replied without even thinking.

"Malfoy." I gasped after I'd said the offensive word. Everyone in the room turned to look at me, even Tiff, who was twisting her head around and looked utterly ridiculous. I recovered from my shock, and grinned.

"Only kidding." I grabbed another Chocolate Frog and stuffed it in my traitorous mouth before anything else could leak out.

An hour later, the sounds from the party downstairs subsided. Most of the girls had already left, but I could hear James and Fred singing "God Rest Ye Merry Hippogriph" at the top of their lungs as they headed up to bed. Honestly, those two are ridiculous. It was September, for Merlin's sake! Christmas was 3 months away!

We had all taken up positions on beds, and our light was dimmed. Our slumber party, though far from over, was subdued.

"Y'know, I always wished Hogwarts had a school paper or something." Jade mused, through a mouthful of Cauldron Cake. Ali and Tiff rolled their eyes at eachother; Jade constantly talked about her ambitions to be a gossip columnist, and this would surely end up as one of those conversations. So me, being the idiotic, spontaneous person that I am, said the first thing that came to mind. I seem to be doing that a lot lately.

"Why don't we start one?" I proposed. Jade sat up, staring at me. Even Ali seemed interested.

"Well, why not? We've got Jade's gossip knowledge, Fred and James's superior skills at getting info out of people-" My idea caught on like Fiendfyre in the Forbidden Forest.  
"And we've got your writing skills, and with all of us combined..." Tiff was all excited, sitting up in bed, her eyes glowing with enthusiasm. I raised my eyebrows at her.

"What writing skills?" I asked

"Don't look at me like that, Rose, you _know_ what I'm talking about. You're the smartest person in our year." She smiled at me. I smiled back; I wasn't one to turn down a compliment, especially when the rest of the room was nodding in agreement.

Ali gasps, causing everyone in the room to turn and look at her, the excited bubble of conversation suddenly ceasing.

"We should use Rose's stories!" She exclaims, to my horror.

Before I know it, Tiff agrees with Ali, and the two of them extract my notebook from my trunk. I tried to stop them, but everyone else had crowded around my trunk, and I couldn't push past Roxanne. Not to mention the fact that Ali was restraining me as Tiff read aloud from my book.

God, this was humiliating. Thankfully, Tiff only read the last entry, the one I wrote after rounds with Malfoy.

It all happened quite rapidly after that. By 3am, Jade had been assigned the position of Editor in Chief, as well as the gossip columinist. I was in charge of creative pieces, a section I'm pretty sure didn't exist in most newspapers, but I let it pass. We'd enlisted James and Fred as well, and we were planning on involving Albus, but we couldn't sneak into his dormitory to ask him (not that sneaking into the James and Fred's dorm had been easy _or_ pleasant, let me assure you). James was the Quidditch correspondent, and Fred was in charge of Comedy (again, a section I'm sure we invented). Ali and Scarlet were general 'news' reporters, and were huddled together in a corner writing down all our Hogsmeade dates for the year. Tiff was given all the odd jobs, such as the Divination section, which she was not at all pleased about. She also got Entertainment, along with Dom (who was also assigned to work with James on Quidditch, though she threw a Cauldron Cake at Jade when she made that assignment). James was currently harrasing her with details of all the bands she should research and put in our first edition. For Albus, we left the task of being the manager/general organiser. I think we invented that title, but we needed someone, besides Jade, to oversee the whole thing. Jade would make sure we got a full edition out, but Albus, we decided, should handle the actual destributing of the paper. We weren't really sure how to do that, instead leaving it to him. Such nice cousins we are.

The longest part of the process had been coming up with a name.

"It needs to be something simple and classic, like a real newspaper." Tiff had stated.

"But it needs to be relevant to Hogwarts..." Roxanne had countered. She was the only one of us who hadn't been given a direct job, as she had said that she would prefer to be on the sidelines, and take over for us when we got busy with exams. Sensible girl, none of the rest of us had thought of that.

"How about the Hogwarts Daily?" Ali had suggested, prompting Fred to throw a pillow at her.

"That's so_ boring_!" He whined, James joining in at the end.

"Well, what would you suggest, then?" I asked, glaring at them with my hands on my hips.

They both stopped laughing, and thought about it for a moment. Simultaneously, they answered.

"The Hog Warts!" They exclaimed, collapsing into laughter again. I'd rolled my eyes at them. Sometimes I simply didn't get their jokes.

Twenty minutes later, we still hadn't come up with a decent name. It was Jade who finally supplied us with one. She had been going through her collection of newspapers, and jotting down words from them. The rest of us kept suggesting names that went from silly to riduculous to downright innappropriate.

"The Dentention Chronicle?" She suggested.

I nearly fell off my bed. She was using the name of my story! She had no right to do that! Part of me was incredibly angry, the other part flattered. The reaction of the rest of the room was pleasing; it appeared that my 'name' was the only one to get a positive response. Jade turned to me.

"You don't mind if we use it, do you, Rose? I'm sure you can name your story something else." She smiled sympathetically at me, her tone light and carefree, as well as slightly simpering. Inwardly, I narrowed my eyes. It was plain that she didn't think much of my story, but I let it pass. What she'd said was true; I could come up with another name. Outwardly, I smiled at her, my smile not reaching my eyes.

"Sure." I replied.

I'm not quite sure how James, Dom and Fred got in touch with Al between 3 in the morning and breakfast, but they must have, because when I arrived in the Great Hall for breakfast, with massive bags under by eyes and a desperate need for coffee or sugar, I saw piles of newspapers at each table. I don't know how they did it, but my cousin's had managed to produce a newspaper overnight. Sure, they'd used magic, but it was still an astonishing accomplishment. James, Dom and Fred sat at their usual spots at Gryffindor Table, grinning widely to eachother. They didn't look tired at all, something I could _not_ understand. Honestly, they'd got less sleep than I had, and they don't look like a raging monster!

Yawning, I made my way over to them, waving sleepily to Al as I passed the Slytherin table. He also looked incredibly chirpy this morning. Sitting down, I was immediatley thrust into the conversation.

"Rose! We did it!" Dom exclaimed, practically hugging me. I raised my eyebrow at her. She was _never_ this...energetic. Either they were delirious with sleep deprivation, which was entirely likely, or she'd had way too many cups of coffee. Looking at the table, littered with cups, I concluded that the latter was responsible. Shrugging, I poured my own cup, and settled down to read the first edition of our newspaper, munching on some toast, while my cousin's went through the finer details of their night. Occasionally Dom would excitedly point to an article I was reading, and I was subjected to hearing the whole story of how the article came about.

When I came to my section, I was surprised to see my story, from my notebook, the one I'd written after rounds, was printed. I looked at Dom questioningly, who laughed.

"Oh, yeah, we decided we had to print it. It was written anyway. You don't mind, do you?" She asked, her face transforming from exhilirated to concerned in half a second. I laughed at her expression.

"Nah, it's fine. I wish I'd thought of a title though..." I trailed off. James looked up, catching my last statement.

"Why don't you? It's easy enough to add in, Jade added in a lot of stuff this morning when we woke her up to have a glance over it, before we distributed." James grinned at me.

I stared at him, my eyes wide. James had actually sounded semi-intelligent for once! Wow, maybe this whole newspaper thing wouldn't end in a disaster, if _James_ was enthused about it.

I felt someone sit on the other side of me, and turning, I saw it was the rest of my roommates. Jade looked almost as tired as I, and Tiff, Ali and Scarlet didn't look much better. They all grabbed cups of coffee. What a bunch of coffee addicts we are, I'm actually scared for our teeth in years to come (only, don't tell my grandparents I'm drinking coffee, or they'll have a fit. They're both dentists, you see.)

"Thanks for waking me up at 5:30 in the morning, guys." Jade said, by way of greeting. James and Fred laughed at her, and she glared back at them, having no effect whatsover. Sniffing in contempt, she opened her own copy of 'The Dentention Chronicle' and preceeded to read.

Dom turned back to me.

"So, what are you going to name it?" She asked.  
I pondered for a minute.

"I have no idea." I admitted, refilling my coffee cup.

James immediatley suggested something so profane that it caused Tiff, Ali, Dom and I to all simultaneously throw bits of our breakfasts at him, scowling. Typical James.

Conversation resumed, and my dormmates were filled in about the events of early this morning. They all were eager to start printing their own stuff, but surprisingly, no one was angry at James, Fred, Dom and Al for going ahead and printing the first edition. It was pretty damn good, we had nothing to complain about. I stared into my coffee cup, thinking of titles. Various words swirled around my head as my coffee swirled around in its cup, but nothing was worthwile.

_Notebook, Dentention, Chronicle, Coffee, ummm...Tea?, Hogwarts, Muggle, T-shirt, _

Wait, T-Shirt? Where did that come from?

_Mad Rose, Insane, Therapy..._

I was off on a mental tangent now.

_Treatment..._

I dragged my mind back on track. I needed to think of a title, now.

_Okay. Treatment...Notebook...Sleep..._

This was not working.

_Notebook. Notebook. _

Gah! My brain was stuck. _Notebook_ and _Treatment_, were stuck, floating around and around in my brain. I picked up a piece of fruit, nibbling on it. _Notebook...the Notebook_. No, that was a Muggle movie, and probably copycated or whatever the term was. I really didn't care much for Muggle law, not like my mother.

_The Treatment. _Ew, no. What did that mean, anyway? I was having trouble relating this to my story.

_The Notebook Treatment. _

Huh. That wasn't bad. Plus, it related to how I'd come up with the story, how I used my notebook to sort out my thoughts. Not half bad, Rose.

_The Notebook Treatment_. I smiled.

"Hey, James?" I asked, looking up at him. Everyone turned to look at me.

"Yeah, Rose?" He asked through a mouthful of cereal.

I grinned impishly at him.

"The Notebook Treatment."


	3. Fight or Flight

The next few weeks passed in a blur. We'd decided to release a new edition of 'The Detention Chronicles' every month, and, with the amount of homework we were getting, I was thankful for this. Between Quidditch training, homework and prefect patrols (which now were undertaken in absolute silence. Malfoy had apparently decided to ignore me, not that I was complaining), I hardly had a spare moment. The first Quidditch match of the season, Gryffindor versus Slytherin, was tomorrow. James and Al were constantly scheduling practices, resulting in some very ugly scenes when both teams had shown up at the pitch on the same night. Last week Fred and I had to carry Micheal to the hospital wing. The two Slytherins, Urquhart and Harper, were worse off, though, Micheal and Fred hit them with_Anteoculatia_, and watching them grow antlers was possibly the most amusing thing I'd seen all week.

Last night, however, had been far from a laugh. James had forced us to practice for nearly three hours. We were all practically falling off our brooms when he called us in. Honestly, I have no idea what he's trying to achieve with all these practices. We're already the best team in the school, what is he worried about?

Thankfully, we have tonight off for the Halloween Feast.

Like usual, the tables are adorned with pumpkins, filled with dishes more elaborate than those usually served. The ceiling is dark and stormy, reflecting the night outside. Occasionally I can hear a clap of thunder, but mostly it is drowned out by the chatter in the Great Hall.

Tiff sat on my right, next to James. For once, James wasn't acting childish and throwing food. He seemed civilized, and if I hadn't known better, I could have sworn he was _flirting_ with Tiff. However James wasn't one to flirt, he was more of a drunken snogging type. I knew that Tiff fancied him, she'd made that clear last night. I thought she'd passed him off as a waste of time, but possibly not, if the way she was looking at him meant anything. I sighed, it really wasn't my problem.

Ali was on my left, engrossed in a conversation with Lily and Hugo about Quidditch. I stared around at the other house tables. The light from the pumpkins was flickering on my cousin Molly's face over at the Ravenclaw table, where she was reading her Charms textbook. Typical Molly, ignore everyone around her and read a book.

Something drew my gaze to the Slytherin table. Their Quidditch team were sitting together, with Al in the centre, looking like he was discussing tactics. About half of the team was concentrating, the other half merely pretending. I saw a Malfoy, looking half asleep and definetley not paying attention to Albus. Scrunching my nose up in disgust, I turned back to my own table.

Halloween was the first major event in our school year. It was really only a feast, but it signified the start of the Quidditch season. Most of Hogwarts was discussing Quidditch, from what I could hear. The fervor was in the air. Once we'd all eaten, James forced us to go upstairs and get a 'good night's rest', to quote him. The Slytherin team left as we did, with death glares passing between us. None of us dared to cast a jinx in the middle of the Great Hall, but I did see Fred's hand twitch towards his wand.

_The red rose hovers in front of me, the scent compelling. I reach out to take it, closing my hand around the stem. It's only when the thorns have pricked me that the laughing starts. A laugh that's familiar to me, scornful, mocking. I snatch my hand back, away from the rose, and he lets it fall to the ground, still laughing. I look up at his face, his grey eyes catching mine, and holding them. The laughing stops abruptly, and our surroundings shift, the rose gone. We hold the gaze for what seems like hours. Suddenly, he is gone, fading into the mist behind him._

The last thing I see before I wake up is the hundreds of roses, all red, that surround me in a perfect circle, and the mist floating above them.

I lie still for a minute, trying to clear my head. For some reason, those grey eyes are sticking with me, as if he's still staring at me.

_C'mon Rose. It's only a dream, after all. As if Malfoy would _ever_ give you a rose. _

Though he did let it prick me, to be fair. Even in my dreams Malfoy's a prat.

My mind's finally free of grey eyes after a shower, and I quickly head down to the Great Hall to join the team for our traditional pre-game breakfast. As usual Hugo looks green and isn't eating, James, Fred and Micheal are chucking food at eachother whilst simultaneously consuming massive amounts of cereal, and Dom and Ali are sitting off to the side, waiting for me to join them.

"Hey Rose." Dom says, ducking down to avoid a piece of tomato Fred just threw. Dom scowls at them before returning to me.

"You slept in." She commented.

"No kidding." I replied, helping myself to some food.

This was typical of our pre-Quidditch conversations, mindless chatter to keep our minds off the game. I was pretty good at controlling my nerves, unlike Hugo, but Dom tended to freak out if we let her think about what was coming, so we'd quickly come up with the 'Distract Dom' approach.

As we walked into the change rooms, the familiar sense of anticipation, and a hint of nervousness came to me. I smiled, welcoming it. I loved Quidditch games, I guess it was in my blood. James did his typical ten minute spiel, and we all tuned out. We could hear the crowd coming down from the castle, and Hugo was now a ghostly pale, instead of green. Ali was sitting across from me, completely calm. She never got nervous, or if she did, she'd hit something with her Beater bat to distract her. She was swinging it now, anxious to get out on the pitch. Fred and Micheal were itching to get out there too, sitting on the edge of the bench, practically bouncing with excitement.

Finally, James deemed it time to make our entrance, and we walked out to massive cheers (and a few jeers from Slytherin, but they were pretty much drowned out). Grinning, I waited for the whistle to blow. I kicked off with Dom beside me, audibly sighing with pleasure when I felt the wind whipping in my hair, and heard the crowd cheering. Nothing had the same excitement as Quidditch. Even the commentary was exciting.

"And Slytherin in possession! They've got a fairly strong team this year, under captain Potter. If anyone can get under Gryffindor's skin, it's this team! Malfoy with the Quaffle, passes to Pucey, back to Malfoy, who approachs the goal..."

_C'mon Hugo..._I whisper to myself. Boggs, the 6th year Ravenclaw who was commentating, was right. Slytherin were in good form.

"And...he scores! 10-0 to Slytherin!"

Malfoy flies past me, grinning. I narrow my eyes at him. I will get him back for that. Hugo looks unnerved. He's a damn good keeper, when he has the right frame of mind. Once we score, he'll be fine. So, for the moment, it was up to me, Dom and Micheal, the Chasers.

"Weasley in possession! Dom, that is. Merlin, it's confusing with so many of them out there."

Boggs earned a laugh from the crowd there.

"Nice tackle by Harper there, Slytherin back in possession! If this keeps up, they could win this match!"

I ground my teeth together and continue my fight to get to the Quaffle. So far, my path's been blocked by Bludgers. Seems there's a fierce battle going on between the Beaters.

By the time I swerve around Urquhart, Malfoy's got the Quaffle. Brilliant.

I tackle him from behind, taking him by surprise.

"Gryffindor in possession! Rose Weasley there, taking Malfoy by surprise. Look at his face!"

I ignored Boggs, heading down the pitch, passing to Dom, who passes to Micheal. Unfortunatley, Urquhart hits a Bludger his way as he's about to score, so I end up with the Quaffle again. I block out the rest of the pitch, focusing only on the three hoops and Derrick, the Slytherin Keeper. He's not the brightest, so I easily score our first goal of the game.

"10 all!" Boggs calls, and the Gryffindors cheer loudly.

It starts to go our way after that. We score twice more before Slytherin even gets close, to my delight. Ali hits a bludger at Malfoy, though unfortunatley it misses him. Close though, I appreciate her effort.

"It's turning into a nail-biter, this one. 90-70 to Gryffindor, and still no sign of the snitch!"

I score again, and inspire a round of 'Weasley is our King' in the stands. Grinning to myself, I nearly fly straight into Malfoy, who has the Quaffle. He looks straight at me, his grey eyes boring into mine. I stop mid-air, caught up in the memory of my dream. _Those eyes..._

"And Malfoy scores!"

I break out of my reverie at the sound of Boggs' voice. What just happened? I shake myself, and get back into the game.

"Potter's caught the snitch!" Boggs calls, to mass confusion. Both Potter brothers play seeker, so that is probably the most unhelpful commentating in the history of Hogwarts.

"Oh, sorry. James Potter! Gryffindor wins!"

We break out into screams, the team converging in the middle of the pitch, sinking down to the ground together. I get a glimpse past Fred of Malfoy, who looks sour. Ha, sore loser.

We exit the pitch surrounded by exhilarated Gryffindors, laughing and cheering. Winning a match always feels euphoric, I don't think I'll never tire of this feeling. I _have_ never lost a match, but I guess I'd deal with that when, and if, it comes. What can I say? Our team's brilliant.

We head back to the common room, Ali and I heading up to our dorm. The party's already in full swing downstairs, but I'm still in my Quidditch robes, and unlike James and Fred, I'd like to smell like something other than mud.

"You guys were brilliant!" Tiff gushes when we enter the dorm.

Scarlet and Jade aren't here (come to think of it, I think I saw them downstairs helping themselves to some firewhisky...hmm...).

I have the first shower, and once I'm done Ali heads in. I open the old copy of 'the Detention Chronicle' that's sitting on Jade's bed. A new issue will be released tomorrow, but I'm not stressing. I've had my piece written for weeks.

I flip open to my article, smiling to myself. We'd all come up with pen names for ourselves, to create an aura of mystery around the paper. Of course, a lot of people knew the Weasley clan was behind it, but no one knew who wrote which part of the paper. For instance, my piece was by 'Lady Red'. Anyone with half a brain could probably guess it was me, but the beauty of it is that no one will no for sure. They can guess all they like, but I'm not going to tell the whole school that I write stories. That would be social suicide.

Ali finally gets out of the shower, and we head downstairs.

"Weasley!"

Someone calls my name, and I get hoisted into the crowd, applauded as part of the team. Ali's receiving similar treatment. Tiff, however, is standing next to the stairs, rolling her eyes at our fellow Gryffindor's attitudes. She doesn't really get the whole 'Quidditch' fanaticism.

After I've had a butterbeer or two, Ali and I split away from the rest of the team, trying to find Tiff.

"I think I see her!" Ali exclaims, and heads over to the other side of the room.

I wait, watching Fred turn his hair from purple to green to blue in the middle of the room, entertaining a crowd of third years. He has a few older, female admirers too. Dom's on the couch next to Micheal, and they look fairly cosy. I smile to myself; they'd be a great pair.

"I _really_ wish I hadn't found her." Ali says, startling me so I pour butterbeer all over myself.

"Geez Ali, who scared me." I said, magically drying myself.

"Sorry, but Tiff scared me." She shudders.

I raise my eyebrow, not sure if I really want to know what, or who, Tiff's up to.

"James." She says, in response to my unanswered question.

I nearly end up with butterbeer all over myself again, as this information makes me gag. Violently. Ali and I shuddered. James might be attractive, I guess, but he's a pig. Not to mention my cousin. I think I'd have to have a chat with Tiff later.

Suddenly, the room seems extremely suffocating. The loud noises, the crowds of people. I tell Ali that I'm going out for some air, and she heads off to get another drink. I head out the portrait hole, taking in a big lungful of the fresh air.

"Miss Weasley, where to you think you're going at this hour?" The Fat Lady calls after me as I head down the corridor.

I ignore her. It's not like she can tell McGonagall on me, she's a portrait after all.

I've never really been a party person. Ali usually isn't partial to them either, but she seems to be caught up in the post-win atmosphere. I was, for a while, but I'm over the party now.

I end up at the Entrance Hall, and, after glancing around in case Filch turns up, I sneak outside, shutting the doors behind me. My mind was all muddled. It had been all day. Something was eating away at me, but what was it?

I was so preoccupied with my thoughts, that I didn't see the person on the Quidditch pitch. Didn't see them flying around, didn't recognise the cocky flying style.

I was almost on the pitch when I realised.

"Rose?"

I jumped at the sound of my name. I looked up, and there he was, hovering on his broom merely two metre from me. I jumped backwards, away from him and his grey eyes. However, I stupidly kept my face turned towards his, my eyes staring at him in surprise. Unluckily, he was staring back at me. The grey eyes were back, and it was my dream all over again. What was wrong with me? Why couldn't I look away?

Thankfully, he broke the gaze, landing on the pitch.

"What are you doing out here?" He asked, his tone scornful.

I snapped out of whatever trance I was in, and retorted with my usual vigour.

"What are _you_ doing out here?" I asked snidely.

He scowled at me, something in his gaze slipping.

"The common room was depressing." He said, looking at the crowd, scuffing his feet against a loose piece of dirt.

I stared at him. Did he just tell me something slightly personal? Something other than an insult? Wow, that's a first.

"Uh, well I got sick of my common room too." I said, feeling very awkward in this situation. Usually we were ripping each other's throats out, it was odd to have this sudden, dramatic change.

"What, the partying too much for you?" He asked, his voice a pale imitation of his usual sarcasm. I might be wrong, but I think he's truly sad.

"It might be hard for someone like you to comprehend, but not everyone likes partying all the time." I say, my tone also softer, gentler than normal.

There was an awkward silence. We were about a metre apart, and he was intently studying the ground. I felt like I should say something, ask if he's alright. If it was anyone else in all Hogwarts, I would have done so immediately. Malfoy, however...

"Uh...are you ok?" I asked uncertainly.

His head snapped up, his eyes meeting mine. _Oh no..._ I thought as his gaze trapped mine, for the third time today, not counting the dream.

We might have stayed like that, staring at eachother for hours. Or maybe only seconds. I don't know.

"Rose?" His voice broke the spell, his tone worried.

It took me a moment, but I realised he'd asked me a question. And all I'd done is stare at him like an idiot...wonderful.

"I'm fine." I said curtly, turning on my heel and fleeing back to the castle as quickly as possible.

Fight or flight, I think they call it. Well, I definetley chose to flee. It was too awkward, standing on the pitch in the middle of the night with my nemisis, who I'd dreamed about last night, who was now acting almost _kind_ towards me...It was confusing. Why did this have to happen? It was simpler when we were strictly enemies. Him and his eyes had to go and mess everything up.


	4. Anonymous Advice

**A/N: Just to be clear, this chapter starts in Rose POV, then switches to Scorpius. **

"Miss Weasley! Come, take a seat."

I was ushered into Professor Herrick's office, directed into a plush armchair. Herrick was the Muggle Studies teacher, and also Head of Gryffindor. That was why I was in his office, for my career interview. Every 5th year had to have an interview with their Head of House to discuss their 'future plans'.

"So, Miss Weasley, what are your goals for next year? What N.E. are you thinking of taking?" Herrick asked.

Thankfully, I'd given this some thought before I'd walked into his office. It was pretty simply really, I'd take as many N.E. as possible to keep my career options open. A logical, smart move. I told him so, and he seemed pleased.

"That is a good idea. However, do you have any idea what you would like to do after your 7th year? Simply keeping your options open won't suffice when you get to that stage." He sat back in his chair, folding his hands across his chest.

I hesistated. Of course I had some answers, the generic ones that I had to please relatives when they asked. Healer, Auror, that sort of thing. Grandma Molly loved it when I said I wanted to be a Healer, apparently Aunt Ginny was set to become one, but abandoned it to play Quidditch. In the eyes of my Grandma, at least, this was the perfect path for me. I, however, wasn't so sure.

"Well, I've considered being a Healer, or maybe and Auror. I'm not really sure yet." I replied.

Herrick sat forward, pouring himself a cup of tea.

"Well, Miss Weasley, those are both fine and honourable professions. However, I wonder if they are really what you want to do? I have seen many students come in here year after year, aspiring to be Healers or Aurors, or perhaps Ministry officials, and who, when they accomplish their dreams, find they aren't happy with what they're doing. They realise, too late, that their passion is elsewhere. What I'm asking, Miss Weasley, is if you could do anything at all with your life, what would you do?"

Half an hour later, I exit Herrick's office, more confused than when I went in. Follow my passion? Yeah, right. Like writing stories was going to earn me a living. Not to mention the reaction of my parents...Merlin, I'd rather take over for Hagrid than tell my parents I was throwing away perfectly good career options to be a 'writer'. That career option was definetely out of the question.

Today was Dom's 17th birthday, and consequently tonight was her incredibly large birthday party, which promised to be the wildest party since James's sixteenth last February. It was also the last week of term, we were all going home for Christmas on Friday, only two days away. Unfortunatley, I had the last Prefect rounds of the term, and several silent hours with Malfoy was definetely going to put a sour note on the end of term atmosphere. Rounds were still conducted in silence, and I'd started avoiding his gaze. I couldn't take it when his eyes met mine, something about them still got to me. So I avoided the issue, in typical Rose fashion.

We'd released a second edition of the Dentention Chronicles at the start of November, and it had been a great success. I'd even got a review; Al and Jade had come up with this great idea for reviews and comments, where readers literally submitted one into the paper, and it spurted back out into the original copy (which was safely confined in the Room of Requirement, our unofficial headquarters).

I had no idea who my reviewer was; they simply called themselves 'Mr X'. The name was a bit cliched, but the review was absolutley brilliant. It pointed out the good points, gave me advice to fix the flaws. Dom had started asking random people if they were 'Mr X', but so far had come up empty handed. I didn't mind, I liked the mystery. After all, no one had any idea who the author of the story was (which was still untitled, unfortunatley), so why did I need to know who my reviewer was?

Whoever they were, they could critique my writing like no other.

I'd be lying if I didn't say I was excited to read 'Mr X's next review. A new edition came out tomorrow, so all I had to do was make it through the rest of the day. Easier said than done, with Dom's party tonight.

Honestly, what was it with Gryffindor's and parties? We'd just had one for winning the Quidditch match, and now we needed another one? If it ended up at all like the last one, I was screwed.

I also couldn't get that...incident...between Malfoy and myself out of my head. Why the hell did he just _stare_ at me? Consequently, I've been avoiding him all week, so that the incident can't be repeated. I wasn't sure what there was between us, since we usually just threw insults at each other and competed for O's, but I did not want to find out.

So, yeah, if I ended up in the same situation tonight, I would definitely be running from Malfoy and his creepy eyes.

"Rose! There you are!" Dom screeched at me when I climbed through the portrait hole. I looked up through my hair, just in time to prepare myself for an onslaught of Dominique.

She pratically through herself on top of me, dragging me all the way across the common room and up to her dorm room.

"Hey to you, too, Dom." I said cheekily, once we were sealed in her room.

She turned around, glaring at me.

"Rose, this is serious! I have no idea what to wear to my party, and Micheal just asked me out!"

This is what it's always like with Dom; we have the occasional deep, meaningful conversation about boys and the like, but then go without talking much for weeks.

"Wait, Micheal Ayer? As in Chaser Micheal Ayer?" I looked at her incredulously.

"Yes! Who else would it be?" Dom said, turning around to rifle through her trunk for clothes.

"Well, what did you say?" I ask, plopping myself down on one of her roomates beds, knowing this would take awhile.

"Well, I said yes, I think. Actually, it was more of an 'okay'." She paused, a red shirt in her hand, turning to look at me.

"Do you think I should've said no?" She cocked her head, waiting for my reply.

I laughed.

"Dom, I'm hardly the person to ask about guys. If you like him, then it's a good thing. If not, well see how one date goes, then judge." I shrugged, getting up from my position to help her with the next crisis, clothes.

It took us several hours, but we were both dressed and made up at 9:15, only a little bit late. But really, who cares? She's the birthday girl, and it's fashionable to be late. Or at least I think it is, I'm not really the kind of person who parties that much to know what is and what isn't fashionable.

"Oh, Dom, Happy Birthday by the way." I grinned at my cousin, giving her a hug.

She grinned back at me, and we descended the stairs to the common room, the pounding music rising up to greet us.

Dom was instantly surrounded by well wishes, so I made my way over to the drinks just for something to do. I was surprised to see several Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs present, but I guess it was logical. Dom was popular, and she did have friends in other houses. Come to think of it, there were probably people from other houses at all of the Gryffindor parties, I'd just never noticed. I know James certainly goes to ones in other houses.

"Hey Rose." I hear two voices greet me, and I turn around.

"Thank God I found you, I was afraid I'd be standing beside the drinks all night." I smiled at Tiff and Ali, both dressed up for the occasion.

"The Slytherins are here." Ali said, looking sombre.

My eyes widened. You have got to be kidding me. If the one person I've been trying to avoid is here, I will...I don't know...push him off the Astronomy Tower. Wait, what?

"Al brought them." Tiff added, looking carefully at me.

I sighed.

"Well, I'll say hi to Al, but avoid the rest. Shouldn't be too hard."

To my surprise, it actually wasn't that hard. I saw Malfoy from a distance a few times, but I managed to dart away before he could come anywhere near me. I went up to bed fairly early, squeezing in some homework before I went to sleep. Tiff and Ali both came in around then, too, not really in the mood for the party anymore, because apparently it had become a 'macho snog fest'. Right...

Weirdly, I felt that I'd actually enjoyed myself, which never happened at parties. I guess I'd hung around with Tiff and Ali the entire time, so it wasn't much different from my normal days.

I fell asleep with a smile on my face, for once not seeing those grey eyes in my mind as I nodded off.

I yawned all the way down to the Great Hall, looking forward to a nice cup of coffee to wake me up. Ali was with me, but Tiff was still snoring, like the rest of my dorm (and probably the whole house, actually).

I had no idea what time the party actually finished, but the common room was a pigsty this morning.

Upon entering the Great Hall and seeing the piles of paper, I remembered. The new issue of the Detention Chronicles came out today.

I grabbed one, pulling it open to read my review, whilst sipping on a nice cup of coffee.

"What's your mystery man have to say?" Ali asked, helping herself to some toast.

"Well, he's reviewing my last story, but he basically says it's fantastic." I grinned at that.

"He also says..." My smile turned to a frown as I read on.

"He says it lacks emotion! He says that whoever Lady Red is, she needs to get out there and experience some real emotions so she can translate it into her story!"

I gaped at Ali over the paper.

"That is so rude! Who the hell does he think he is, he can't just _write_ that about my story! He doesn't even know me!"

Grumbling, I ate my toast, reading the rest of his review, which didn't get any worse, thankfully.

"Ah, Rose, I hate to point it out, but it's actually a good thing Mr X has no idea who you are. It means he can give you an honest review. And since you don't know who he is, he doesn't have to worry about you going and jinxing him for writing something bad." Ali grinned impishly at me.

I narrowed my eyes. She was right, of course, but I wish she wasn't. Stupid anonymous reviewer.

"Well, I guess I'll just have to get more emotion into my next issue. Surely I can think of something over the holidays." I helped my self to some fruit, already planning my next issue.

Ali remained silent, probably because she knew there was no point pursuing the issue.

We were eventually joined by the rest of our house, who were all sporting wonderful hangovers. It did make the rest of the day fun, I must say, watching them all suffer through class.

_Scorpius POV_

I looked at my watch. She was late, unusual for her. Well, I can't say I actually expected her to show up, she's been avoiding me since the Quidditch match.

Just because I looked at her. Geez. I mean, I didn't mean anything. I had absolutely no feelings towards her at all. She's just hot, that's all.

So it's perfectly natural for me to stare at her in class, and at Dom's party, when she looked pretty damn fantastic. It means nothing, I'm allowed to appreciate her looks.

Who am I kidding, I have some kind of feelings for her. Sure, I hate her and we have this competitive vibe between us, but that easily translates into this...pull I have towards her. Last year I never even noticed how she looked. This year, she suddenly...changed. She's actually _pretty_. Well, if I'm honest with myself, more than pretty. She's pretty damn beautiful.

But, I have to keep ignoring this pull I feel towards her. She's a Weasley, and hates my guts. It'll go away eventually, I'll find some nice girl Dad will approve of and everything will go back to normal. I'm sure of it.

"Malfoy!"

It's her. Ten minutes late. At least she showed, I guess.

"Let's go." She says, avoiding my eyes.

Inwardly groaning, I follow her down the corridor for rounds.

An hour later, and she still hasn't said anything to me, or even looked at me. I've been getting a pretty nice view of her arse walking behind her all night, but I kept those thoughts to myself. If she ever found out exactly what I was thinking, I'm pretty sure I'd been hexed into looking like a purple slug with tentacles.

We reached the end of the seventh floor corridor, the end of our rounds. She stalked off towards Gryffindor Tower without a single word or glance at me. Great.

I wonder if she's ignoring me because she has feelings for me, and wants them to go away too?

Wait, I shouldn't be thinking that. I need to get over this, and this holiday break should be the perfect time to do that.

I start to head off towards my own common room, but I notice a notebook lying on the floor.

I spose it must have fallen out of her bag. I pick it up, in half a mind to run after her and return it. Yet, my new resolution to avoid her and stop thinking about her prevented me from doing so. Being a Slytherin, curious and sly, I couldn't help but look in the book. I opened it, flicking through. It was full of writing, and at first I thought it was a diary. I should have closed it then and there, but being the snoop that I am I start reading.

The first entry was dated in October, just after 5th year had started. I read it, not understanding. Why was Rose carrying around a note book full of the Lady Red stories?

Oh.

No way. Rose….Rose was her? The mystery girl who was writing the hottest piece in the Hogwarts Magazine? As I said before, no way. That would be just too weird.

But it made sense. I mean, her code name was Lady Red. How many other girls could that apply to in this school?

It was Rose. All this time, and I had no idea that the girl I hated was capable of writing such an emotional story.


End file.
